When I click to expand the "Config" menu, Precord 1.0.5 disappears. I restart it from the Multimedia menu, click "Config" again, and it works like it's supposed to

Just means the precord config file was corrupted somehow. Used to happen if you clicked the GUI window X rather than exit with the Quit button, but I thought I'd fixed that in 1.0.4
Anyway, it self-heals as you described and hopefully rarely occurs. I've hardly had time to test version 1.0.5 unfortunately, since things have come up here that prevent me doing more on it for a day or two at least. But do let me know if any other problems come up or if the vanishing problem occurs again or often.

Flash wrote:

I tried vbr. It works fine. I didn't do a real comparison yet (recording the same audio track with both vbr and cbr) but vbr's file size for 30 seconds of me talking seemed about the same as with cbr. Is that what you found?

Depends on the bitrate you set it at. If both are at 32kbits/sec then the size will probably be much the same, but at hight bit rates vbr should provide much smaller files (compared to cbr at the same selected bit rate). vbr certainly seemed to be the best for me when recording streaming radio with 01micko's pupRadio._________________Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam Nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit.Edited_time_total

How does mhWaveEdit manage to include built-in VU meters that look like old-school galvanometers, with a dial and a needle that moves? If you're recording stereo there are two VU meters.

I think I found mhWaveEdit's executable file in usr/bin/ but I can't open it to see what's inside. Even if I could, I'm sure I wouldn't have a clue what I was looking at. I assume it's a compiled program, and the source code is somewhere else.

If you want a nice VU meter for Precord, there is "gtkvumeter", however it is only a gtk widget and will require some wrapper application to drive it.

Actually, I compiled and tried that one on the 12 Dec. It just comes with a test front end which shows its general look and feel. The executable is only about 15kB - but alas I have no idea how to make it work with alsa; maybe I'll eventually look at the source code for ameter or even aplay to see if I can figure out how they actually pick up the sound data but I've no idea how trivial or otherwise that is likely to be. If it is easy, I would have thought there was an app already out there using gtkvumeter rather that ameter (which needs SDL) but I couldn't find any. However, if anyone knows how such things work, please do let me know - a VU working on record would be just great!_________________Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam Nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit.

How does mhWaveEdit manage to include built-in VU meters that look like old-school galvanometers, with a dial and a needle that moves? If you're recording stereo there are two VU meters.

I think I found mhWaveEdit's executable file in usr/bin/ but I can't open it to see what's inside. Even if I could, I'm sure I wouldn't have a clue what I was looking at. I assume it's a compiled program, and the source code is somewhere else.

Yes it is written in C. I downloaded the source code and part of that is vu_meter.c (with vu_meter.h). Whether or not it is easy to use these parts separately I haven't as yet determined (assuming I can...); would be nice.

EDIT: alas vu_meter only provides the functions for drawing the meter, it seems to me, and would also need a wrapper program driving it, which is the stumbling box, I'd say. In more detail, vu_meter seems to be tightly wrapped in to the main mhWaveEdit program via the recorddialog.c part of the source code. I have given up on that avenue of investigation._________________Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam Nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit.

Note: Version 2.0.0 also had the above; 2.0.1 just swapped the order of the select encoder radio buttons to what I preferred!
And I added a 1 second sleep to the stop record function._________________Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam Nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit.

it is usually better to use plughw since that performs any needed conversions and supports more formats than native hw.

So I'm following that recommendation of using: plughw

However, I'm assuming the default soundcard and not specifying which card at the moment. I suppose I could add in selections for plughw:0 and plughw:1 if that is what you are looking for?
Or maybe, plughw:0,0 and so on..._________________Non enim propter gloriam, diuicias aut honores pugnamus set propter libertatem solummodo quam Nemo bonus nisi simul cum vita amittit.